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Article

12 Sep 2017

Author:
Eryk Bagshaw, Sydney Morning Herald

Australia: Growing numbers of mining companies operating in Africa; greater transparency required to minimise risk of corrupt practices

"The Australian companies mining $40 billion out of Africa", 10 September 2017

...This year, Australia will become the biggest international miner on the African continent, doubling its investment to more than [AU]$40 billion over a decade, according to the Australia-Africa Minerals & Energy Group.

Resgen is one of more than 140 Australian companies that have landed on African shores, 44 in South Africa alone, documents obtained by tax transparency network Publish What You Pay Australia show.

...seven families agreed to lease their land to Resgen for a railway to the Boikarabelo mine, to be built by a contractor on the condition that the company would provide services to the community...when the contractor was later liquidated it left a school with no roof and water pumps without electricity...

Australia now outnumbers the US, Canada, China and the UK for the highest concentration of companies in Africa with 312 projects in 34 countries, 105 of those in gold...

Since 2004, more than 380 people have died in mining accidents or off-site skirmishes connected to Australian companies in Africa...revealed bribes had allegedly been paid...allegations of mining in prohibited zones...combating bribery starts with tax and government payment transparency...[Jessie Cato of Publish What you Pay Australia] is calling on Australia to enforce Canada's Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act and require companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange to report their payments to government, both domestically and abroad...It is not just tax transparency advocates calling for change, mandatory transparency laws have support in the mining community too...

[also refers to Perseus Mining, Mineral Commodities, Sundance Resources & Ledjadja (subsidiary of Resgen)]